Saturday, 30 December 2006

I know i promised MCQP as my next post but I have no pictures yet from all the respective photographers so you will have to be patient.

What I can tell you all about was our mammth hike from the folks' place in Kalk Bay to the Chapman's Peak Hotel. Think 8 hours of mountain trails with views as far as the eye can see. It was hard work but gorgeous! Just a couple of pics to give you an idea. I am sure Phil will compile a picasa gallery for us all to view the step by step. I hope you all had a great christmas and that the New Year's eve plans are well and truly under way.

Friday, 29 December 2006

For those that are interested, the shins are about to release there new album on 22nd Jan. The single is out and can be downloaded from http://www.themuso.co.za/?p=614 . But why I really wanted to post this, is because they made a video of a live performance of the single by compiling all their fans footage from cel phones and digital cameras. Let's see if I can work out how to attach it, or I'll just add the link...........

Also, for the Cape Town crew, Unit.r have released their first EP, which has already sold out. So they are now letting fans download it for free from http://www.unit-r.com/unit_music.html using the password ilikescience.

Wednesday, 27 December 2006

Happy Christmas, Happy Jewmis everyone! Hope you had a fabulous day filled with family and some friends (so you don't go moggy and family members are forced to behave slightly), lots of food, alcohol and some singing! As you know we had some singing on Christmas, but Greg did get sleep eventually.

I took this photo in Melbourne, when I stumbled upon a que, several blocks long, of small children and their parents in the middle of the night, lining up to see the Myer's Christmas window displays. Myer's is a huge department store and had singing Australian animals dancing in the windows. A bit bazaar but sweet for Christmas.

Tuesday, 26 December 2006

And after a life like that to finally succumb to pneumonia, what a loss....

In other news, Greg woke up this morning with the sounds of last nights Damien Rice sing-along still ringing in his ears (the sing-along started after he went to bed, but the pure angelic beauty of the voices kept him up until it mercifully ended at about 1am).

I am Jewish, so i cant really wish everyone a Merry Christmas, but i can say Happy Festivus, Kwanzaa, Chrismukkah, etc. I found the picture below on the SMH website yesterday, and it kind of sums up how i feel about organised religion. Add your own witty caption... A prize for the best one (the Barbie pencil rubber that i won in my cracker yesterday).

Monday, 25 December 2006

Thought i'd add my xmas wishes as the day comes to an end. Hope you've all been spoilt and have endured any family gatherings that have been inflicted upon you. Enjoy the rest of the holidays and good luck in the new year.

Here's a pic from my xmas dinner that i had to add. My aunt decided that she was bored of xmas trees and instead decorated her mother's walker. Crazy relatives are the best kind.

And lets not forget Paula's Birthday. This year a boerewors, paptert, koeksuster braai. (mixed with a lot of alcohol (when would her parents ever have drunken that bottle of sambuca hidden at the back of their booze cabinet?) and cheesy music, the use of props from their fishoek home, coupled with a drunken (naked i may add) DJ who refused to get out of Paula's bed. To welcome in the xmas season, mary and I performed an impromtu musical presentation along with drum beats etc. Lara managed to capture it on video, i'll attempt to attach it. Consider it our 'xmas card'.

Merry Christmas (and Jewmas! as Kerry would say!) to all of you- where eva you are.....

Christmas madness has descended upon us. The last few days in slaapstad have been filled with activities, meeting old friends and new and just generally partying alot. Many memorable moments were shared. The photos reveal all..

Another amusing highlight of the festive season was when my parents tackfully asked me if i'd had any revelations about my sexuality while i was in Namibia(seriously) they thought i may have something to tell them as I haven't had a boyfriend all year!?! But these photos of Kerry and Paula on the otherhand at Mary's Xmas party...

Saturday, 23 December 2006

Howzit! Christmas christmas christmas christmas. So people prolly won't be checking this blog. Nevertheless, I thought I'd let you all know that I spent the night in Nieu Bethesda on Thursday - we stopped over on our way down from Johazardousburg. Dorp is about 50km from Graaf Reinet in the E. Cape. Pretty much in the middle of vokkol. Has about 900 people, 850 or so of which live in the township just outside the central district. Yup, apartheid even made it to little places that have no tarred roads, and that only got electricity in 1992.

Nieu Bethesda is famous for the Owl House. Dotty Miss Helen, who was born and died in the same house, started major alterations after losing her second husband. She liked coloured glass, cement sculptures, and weird knick knacks. Oh and the Mona Lisa - 4 different framed pics of her in the house. Anyway she topped herself in the 1970s - the town has ensured that everything in the house has remained more or less as it was the day she died. It's bizarro world, onetime...

Sunday, 17 December 2006

Well, last week was fun. Thursday morning 05h00 some crazy driver took a corner too fast and subsequently took out my car. It was parked on the side of the road (off the road in a parking bay!). My car was bounced into a friend's car and his into his housemate's car... so count them: 1,2,3,4 cars with twisted metal and bruised bumpers - not bad for a morning's work. Suffice to say it has made logistics in my life a little more complicated than normal, but what you going to do. The driver has no insurance and not a hell of a lot of money so who knows what is going to happen. Thankful for small mercies - at least I get a renta car tomorrow.

Last night was MCQP and I promise to put up the pics once I get my hands on them! I will write a bit of an entry to go along with them too! Too tired to do it now. Hope everyone is well!

Finally at 27 years of age, I graduated for the first time yesterday. Very exciting, thought i'd share this experience with you all. - Here's Kerry and Lorna and I celebrating on the roof of the waiting room overlooking long street. I also found out that I got that job that I wanted, so I'm joining the world of work in january. Here's to 15 days of leave a year!

Monday, 11 December 2006

Last Saturday (9/12) was Soweto derby time again! This one was a little more special than most, because it was the last match at FNB Stadium before it goes into refurbishment phase ahead of 2010. I dragged Dave, Romy, Hazard and Pharmy along with me this time (yes, to the heart of Soweto. And we left after the sun had set. Shocking I KNOW!).

We were supposed to meet the Berkowitzes and their crazy bunch, but couldn't find them after arriving at different times. No surprise really - 80,000 odd people is a fair bit, and the vuvuzelas are loud enough to make mobile phones useless. Anyway, Pirates scored in the opening 10 minutes or so, and were holding onto that for what would've been a very unlikely victory (Pirates are in the relegation zone at the moment). But, right at the end of the 4th minute of extra time, Chiefs equalised through a Shaun Bartlett header. Half the stadium - the gold and white half - erupted. The other half - black and white - was livid. Rock on...

Some pics in the album below. Google Video isn't blocked by WITS! Check the vibe here

Hello All!Well its taken me forever but I am finally composing my first ever blog post (comments don't really count, I know)Been in complete shoot mode for the past few weeks (which as some of you know makes Kerry all work and no play and therefore a very dull girl). Back in the office today for the dreaded "recon" [dum dum dum]. This is the business end of the shoot and the biggest anti climax you can possibly imagine; trawling through invoices, receipts etc etc for days on end. But at least the hours are back to office time and the pressure is off a little. We wrapped last Thursday and so followed the scheduled madness that is a wrap party. Can't say I am a big fan of the wrap party institution, generally as I have to organise them and arranging transport for a group of crazy drunk crew is never fun... Suffice to say, I think everyone made it home after dinner and more cocktails than most of us can handle at Cape To Cuba in Kalk Bay. Well some of us didn't make it home - we just moved the party to one of the crew's houses in Clovelly til sunrise... The rest of my weekend was spent in a rather fluffy haze, combination of sleep deprivation and hang over, although far more emphasis on the former surprisingly. However I did make to Spier to Saturday afternoon to see Neo, Mafikizolo and Salif Keita play under a beautiful, vast African sky. It was incredible! Think Kirstenbosch with ten times more sky and 1/4 of the people with music that just makes you want to dance. Salif Keita's band blew me away and a bit of dancing in the sun was just what was required to blow the production blues far away! Helen has some pics I think, so Hels if you get a sec would love to see them! Although one thing was noticeably missing, so Al I hope you have arrived safe and sound and looking forward to catching up with all your adventures soon! OK, back to work... next chapter: Stencil drama as I try get all the Mr Men and Little Misses ready for Saturday :D

Sunday, 10 December 2006

3. Adding pictures of a bra-less Britney is not a sure-fire way of getting more hits.

The real results were that we had about 220 hits last week, and about 30 of those were 'new visitors', while the rest were 'returning visitors'. That's not so bad actually, although when you take into account that some people access the site from more than one computer (work and home) its really only the people that are signed up to the site as contributors that are checking it out. Anyway, the most disappointing thing about the Google Analytics data is the geographical divisions. We have had about 8 hits from the States (Jo?) but from right across the continent, from east to west coast. Unless someone is doing shit loads of travelling, i would suggest that their internet access from one location is being routed through number of different telephonic switches. The same goes for the "person" accessing from Ponta Delgada which appears to be a town on a island in the middle of the Atlantic. Ditto for our only fan in Oslo.

So there you have it, all dreams of instant internet success have been dashed (sorry Tals) and as we intended, this site is only being viewed by us.

Saturday, 9 December 2006

So I added this pic cos I think its cool. Melbourne at dusk from an office.. mmm But I also wanted to say that the fires in Victoria are so bad, that the entire city is engulfed with smoke today and it's kilometers away... I'm not even riding into the city because the visbility is shocking and it's hard to breath. weird.

Thursday, 7 December 2006

Ok, time for another serious post. I'm in a news analysis mood. Although I don't know a helluva a lot about what's going on, so I'll just rehash bits of what I've read. The latest may be read here.

The Horn of Africa (that bit sticking out in the east if you're unsure - read this for background if interested), is just about to blow up (again). The heart of the action this time is Somalia (it's usually Ethiopia-Eritrean border issues causing all the problems. Well actually, it's usually just Ethiopian meddling all over the show). Basically, a militia force calling itself the Union of Islamic Courts is pretty close to toppling the enfeebled Somalian 'government'.

I say 'government' because Somalia hasn't had one since 1991/2. They've had many many internationally-backed transitional 'governments', but never one that is recognised as legitimate by all interested parties. The UN-recognised administration that is there doesn't even work from the capital, Mogadishu. It's really therefore no wonder they've also had many insurgencies like this current one. This is, however, the first explicitly involving Islamist elements.

And yes, this is all part of the ongoing fallout from the mess the US involved itself in in Mogadishu right at the end of Bush senior's term (about 1992 - see Black Hawk Down for Hollywood's interpretation). He thought he was helping restore order. He didn't, and left the mess to Clinton.

The UN Security Council has just passed a resolution saying an African Union (AU) force may intervene. This is unlikely to help at all (c.f. Darfur).

But the conflict has already pulled in about 10 countries: Libya, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda (who's also dealing with rowdy Congolese, Burundian, and Rwandans on it's western and southern borders) Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Djibouti. And the US is of course also involved. Apparently all of these have some sort of interest in influencing Somalia's future, and have had since the last stable government toppled in 1991. For example, Eritrea, supporting and funding the Islamic Courts, sees this as a great way of getting one over the Ethiopians, who are trying to prop up the 'government'.

This is clearly not an isolated problem; it really isn't just Africans ruining their own futures again, as some critics are wont to argue. It's linked to religous radicalisation in Africa, the terribly misguided and ineffective global war on terror and crap US foreign policy, UN and AU legitimacy and (in)effectiveness, and so on. Given this region's horrible history, ongoing tension between Ethiopia and just about eveyone in its neighbourhood (Ethiopia happens to have a massive army, despite the country's gross underdevelopment, hunger, poverty, etc.), the repressive, ruthless maniacs running Sudan, and, of course, strong man Gadaffi over in Libya, it really does have to the potential to become very serious shit.

The bottom line is this is bad, and will deteriorate because it's happening in a very bad neighbourhood. Who will lose? Impoverished Africans. Again.

Amazing. Jozi is amazing. Someone stole the brass door handles off our office's main entrance last night. I even took a picture met my foon, but the upload is still full of kak. Yes I cleared all my cookies and cache.

So if anyone spots two brass plates, very loosely resembling Welsh-style dragons, and one with a door handle attached, please return them to Jan Smuts House, WITS East Campus, Braamfontein, Jofuckingcrazyburg.

Wednesday, 6 December 2006

Hi there,Thanks for writing in and reporting this problem. Blogger recentlyexperienced some temporary difficulties with image uploading. This issuehas now been resolved, but if you are still experiencing difficulties,please clear your browser's cache and cookies and restart your browser. We apologize for the inconvenience.Sincerely,BrennaThe Blogger Team

So now you know, just clear out your temporary internet files and cookies and restart your browser.

Ag sorry ouens, i dont know what the problem with posting pics is, but it seems to work and then not work, and then work again. All i can suggest is that you try again later if you cant post a picture. I've emailed support but i don't expect a prompt reply...

If you really get frustrated, try focusing your hatred on this heartless, bigoted, bogun, bitch.

Tuesday, 5 December 2006

Posting :Sometimes the site wigs out, it has happened to everyone it seems, just close the page and try again, or reboot your computer, that always seems to work. I think it has something to do with the Java thingamajig.

Commenting :I speak to you Tals, so we talk about your stuff then.

Bossing :I'm not the boss of this site. If i was i would add advertising and make money!

Wessyde,

Greg

Oh and i almost forgot... Britney seems to have forgotten her bra as well...

Yip, algae is cool (refer to Greg's blog entery on biodiesel)! Yes, these are pics of real live algal cells being stressed and producing a compound called astazanthin. This is the stuff that makes salmon, prawns, flamingos and coral, pink. It's damn good for you cause it fights free radicals, which cause cancer and we have figured out how to get algae to make it, so we don't have to distroy coral reefs and we don't have to eat white farmer salmon. And it is grown in Upington. Maybe we should sent Ken there to check up on the algae next year, Kimberley is fairly close...

just tried to attach a pic of my niece.. maya.. the cutest two year old ever.. and no can do..

also..just have to say that I'm way unimprsesed that noone has commented on my project info..shoo I know all of you are doctors, lawyers and engineers.. but seriosly?! i thought there'd be some_ interest in what I do all day...

Saturday, 2 December 2006

I've added a Google Analytics thingamabob to the website, so i thought i should declare it to everyone... I think it would be interesting to see how many hits we're getting, and how often people are checking the blog. I dont really care about the details, and will remove it if anyone has any objectons, i just thought it was a cool service. I'll post the results weekly or monthly or whatever if people are interested, or just give everyone access to the Google Analytics account... comments please!

Also, as i've said before, posts without pictures suck, so here is a picture of the sydney fruit and veg markets...

I went there this morning, and while it is far smellier and more chaotic than the picture lets on, i picked up 5 kilos of killer cherries and too many mangos for cheap cheap. Fuck, is that what excites me these days? I need to get home...

Friday, 1 December 2006

is the title for a performance project I've been working on for the past few months. Over the last two and a half weeks, we've been workshopping in a basement space at the old Abbotsford Arts Convent.This has been our first creative development for the work. And we are planning to produce it for next year, with another creative development in the pipeline for Feburary pending funding... (www.abbotsfordconvent.com)

Anyhow... I thought you might be interested in what I've been up to... especially the lawyers out there.. so heres the shpiel...

'In other words' is an investigation into the significance of storytelling within international truth comissions. It explores how various countries have provided a platform in which citizens can speak to their pasts. And in doing so, reconcile with their histories, their divided memories. (the idea is to explore international stories in order to point towards Australia's official lack of acknowledgement to it's past.) Using slide projected portraits and landscapes, we have begun to explore how stories are constructions of memory, providing the storyteller with an identity in the moment of telling.

portraits and memories...It has been important to acknowledge that the testimonies explored are not our personal stories, nor are they the actors, or the slide portraits. Rather, they represent the 'act of telling', the act of beccoming whole, of re membering - physically and metaphorically. The physical reconstruction of the portrait within performance acts as a metaphor for the significance of that moment. But the ability to disfigure, deconstruct , fragment the image within performance speaks equally to the consequences and challenges that speaking these stories can bring. I.e That often this kind of 'truth telling can 'open old wounds'.

landscapes and the invisible.. Inspired by the State terrorism in South America and the people who dissapeared, I was/am inspired by how people can become invisible. As if they have been swallowed up by the earth. I am also interested in how landscapes can hold their own memory. And how these memories can be accessed by investigating the 'traces' of the past left behind.

So there is my 'art speak' ... here are the exciting ideas attached to the piece so far....

We're inside this space, that you can see above.. it's amazing, old and crazy, with its own sense of history. We're thinking of dividing the audience into three. Each group gets brought into the space via a small room inside the building. Each group acts as a witness to one story told differently by each actor. The actor uses that partiuclar story but inteprets it within a different slide portrait that is projected into a different space.

The audience is then moved into the main space. Prior to this, they have each been given a white shirt and asked to take their shoes off. When they enter the main space, projected all around them, are images of landscapes and they walk onto red soil that covers the entire space. As they move through the space, they become part of the landscape as the image is projected onto them. They either highlight the landscape, if they are standing in front of a black wall, or become invisible and dissapear into the landscape, if they are in front of a white wall. The idea is that they become part of a living installation.

Emerging out of the landscapes, come various testimonies, spoken by the three actors, sometimes simultaneosly, other times, one by one. But each time, spoken through a projected slide portrait, projected onto a particularly architecturally interesting surface. i.e one of the images is projected into the chimney, and an actor is sitting inside the chimney, her white outfit acting as a screen for the projected image.

So there you go... that's what I do all day.. figure out how to project light onto various surfaces and why I'm doing it...

and then I wonder if i'm going to be a very poor artist all my life, or if things will change...

Just thought that this was a sweet pic. Hols has just come back from travelling and I haven't seen her in months - which is why I look particularly excited!! All those who haven't come to visit me yet.. Helz, Fran, Brig, Paula, Phil... my house is open.. !! xxx